Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not free, in any sense of the word free.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Not free; held in bondage.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not free; especially of a tenant who was bound to a manor.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective hampered and not free; not able to act at will
  • adjective held in servitude

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ free

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Examples

  • But for that reason to call every action unfree is shortsighted.

    Archive 2009-10-01 David McDuff 2009

  • Peasant labour was "unfree" - tied to a particular estate and having to provide a share of their crops or labour to the lord or the monastery that ruled them.

    Socialist Worker (Britain) 2009

  • Ricardo: I’ve never seen CNN air anything like that before or be so open about the constraints their reporters work under in unfree countries.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Reuters on North Korean Comedy 2010

  • I’ve never seen CNN air anything like that before or be so open about the constraints their reporters work under in unfree countries.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Reuters on North Korean Comedy 2010

  • Less clearly defined than the distinction between the free and the unfree was the distinction, which began to develop toward the middle of the century, and which was doubtless accentuated by the Cavalier migration from England during the Commonwealth period, between the small and the large landowner.

    Beginnings of the American People Carl Lotus Becker 1909

  • Now two categories of being "unfree" and "under a new guardianship", are the same, but the results would have been too embarrassing for the government and its external patrons.

    Wednesday, November 30, 2005 As'ad 2005

  • Beneath them were the "unfree" _nativi_, sold or given with the soil.

    A Short History of Scotland Andrew Lang 1878

  • If you are willing to part with a buck or two, there are a slew of "unfree" ham radio apps, too.

    ARRL Amateur Radio News 2010

  • If you are willing to part with a buck or two, there are a slew of "unfree" ham radio apps, too.

    ARRL Amateur Radio News 2010

  • Here are some of the ways that I will be encouraging the FSF to serve the free software movement in the coming year: short essay I wrote earlier this year, I pointed out that there are now billions of mobile phones and that, although these phones are increasingly powerful computers, they represent one of the most locked-down, proprietary, and "unfree" technologies in wide use.

    LXer Linux News 2010

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